


Fucking with Gender Norms and Sticking it to the Man

by ermengarde



Series: Coffee Boy [3]
Category: Bandom, GlamRPF, My Chemical Romance, Tommy Ratliff (Musician), mcratliff
Genre: Gen, Podfic Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 23:03:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/301017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ermengarde/pseuds/ermengarde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy's worn eyeliner since he was, like, 16 or something but it's not, like, a political statement or anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fucking with Gender Norms and Sticking it to the Man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lokte](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lokte/gifts).



> In the same universe as[ Living in the Pocket](http://archiveofourown.org/works/285045) and [The Care and Socialization of Hermits](http://archiveofourown.org/works/299271), where Isaac's filling in the time while he's waiting for Adam to get on with releasing some new stuff by drumming for My Chemical Romance and Tommy's filling in the time by getting coffee for Gerard and Mikey Way.
> 
> This is for Lokte, who asked about Gerard's reaction to Tommy and sympathised about that pesky single PoV stuff. Merry Christmas sweetheart <3 <3
> 
> ~

Tommy's worn eyeliner since he was, like, sixteen or something; back when he couldn't get the ink he wanted and he felt like he wasn't really being _him_ even right in the middle of wanting to be exactly the same as everyone else in his group (he remembers wanting to be different than everyone else, but looking back he'd really wanted to fit in just as much as everyone else, just, like, he chose leather and eyeliner and being terrifying to anyone over the age of about twenty five instead of being a jock or an honor student or what the fuck ever). He likes the way it finishes off his face, makes his eyes, like, pop or whatever (which sounds like something you'd want to go to the hospital for but he kinda gets what it means) and it has always, _always_ got him girls.

Even when he had really fucking stupid hair and was all puffed up from the steroids they gave him for his knee and even without the guitar - which, total fucking pussy magnet. It's kind of terrifying how it makes some chicks forget anything other than his dick, like being able to play a tune means he's suddenly some completely other thing, not just, like, Tommy Joe Ratliff, kind of a loser, kind of a loner, kind of a freak. He's not, like, complaining or anything, but it kinda makes his head spin how smudging a bit of black around his eyes and standing at the end of a shitty dive bar, playing kinda shitty music can suddenly make him go from mostly being ignored in the corner to second most wanted in the room. Like, he's always done _okay_ , yanno? Like, he's pretty good at making friends and the eyeliner thing kinda pushed him over the line into, like, friends with benefits, shit like that, so it's not like he's got self esteem issues or shit, but he defies anyone not to get a little bit fucked up when they realize that, actually, _anyone_ can get laid if they're in a band, doesn't fucking matter who they are or what they look like (definitely doesn't matter how good they are or if the band is total shit, it's the being on stage that counts).

Anyway, the eyeliner is kinda a part of him? Like, he looks at himself in a mirror when he's not wearing it and he looks tired and undone, like he should be in his pajamas and downing Theraflu or something.

He didn't really get into the whole rest of the makeup thing until much later - like, he's always let girls do his face, because nine times out of ten that meant they'd let him do _them_ later on, and he's always kinda liked how it can make it him look totally different, like some kind of exotic cat or whatever, but he wasn't really very good at putting it on himself and it seemed like a lot of effort just so he could look like someone had punched him in the face. But then there was Adam and TV and makeup artists and Glamnation and fucking _weeks_ on a bus with Sutan and shit all else to do but learn and, well, yeah. It's kinda awesome knowing that the face he sees in the mirror when he gets up is, like, the baseline of how good he can look that day, it's, like, the worst case scenario. When he really fucking thinks about it, it's kind like this huge fucking secret that women have been keeping for years - you can _always_ look better than you do when you get up.

Except, when he gets into a conversation with Gerard about it, Gerard earnestly explains that men used to wear makeup all the fucking time, like, in history, and that it's really some kind of huge fucking conspiracy where men are lazy fuckers who can't be fucked making an effort to look better, but they know that it's _possible_ , and they like to look at pretty things so they make women, like, spend hours on their appearance every day and be all primped and smooth and shiny and shit.

Which is fucking shit, but, yanno, probably true. Gerard's like a walking textbook on gender studies and Tommy kinda likes that he's not just making himself look pretty when he does his face, he's totally fucking with gender norms and sticking it to the man and all that shit. Gerard gets, like, totally into it all and is perfectly capable of talking for _hours_ about how Tommy, because he's a man and because he's _publicly identified_ as straight, is, like, _fucking incredible_ or whatever, and how it's, like, part of the same thing as Frank's _homophobia is gay_ shirt and all the shit they do on stage.

Tommy's _tried_ explaining that he didn't fucking know that Adam was going to kiss him on the AMAs, but Gerard reckons that Tommy's still, like, subversive or shit because he didn't, like, push Adam away (of course he fucking didn't push Adam away, Adam's a fucking brilliant kisser. Adam is, just, like, fucking sex on legs) and it's kinda nice having Gerard's, like, admiration. It's not like he's doing anything because of, like, social awareness or wanting to push boundaries or shit like that, except for the NoH8 stuff (which, people tweet total _shit_ at him, sometimes, and it makes him really fucking angry. Why shouldn't people be able to get married, if they want to? Fucking idiots), it's just, like, it makes him feel kinda fuzzy that someone's noticed that he doesn't take the easiest route all the time, that there's the way the universe should be and the way it is and, that, like, Tommy kinda chooses to behave like it's already the way it should be sometimes, rather than, like, making his mom happy and shit. He tries to explain that it's not, like, political, it's just how he is, but, like, yeah. Gerard just hugs the shit out of him and says that's why Tommy's awesome and... It’s just _nice_.

It's that, really, more than anything, that makes him feel like, maybe, he's not just Isaac's friend and the coffee boy. It's just like... _everyone_ 's kind of caught Gerard's appreciation of Tommy's general Tommyness and it's just kinda like Tommy fits, like he belongs.

 

And he’s got a bunch of new people he can totally steal makeup from.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Fucking With Gender Norms and Sticking it to the Man](https://archiveofourown.org/works/663393) by [dapatty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dapatty/pseuds/dapatty)




End file.
